Phillips, and Clarence Cassell. All of these radio performers remained with Dragnet when it became a television series. During the radio show's first year, Raymond Burr was on board to play chief of detectives Ed Backstrand. Jack Webb and company worked out the format and eventually grew somewhat comfortable with their characters (Friday was originally portrayed as more brash and forceful than his later, usually flat demeanor). Gradually, Friday's deadpan, fast-talking persona emerged, described by John Dunning as "a cop's cop, tough but not hard, conservative but caring." Friday's first partner was Sergeant Ben Romero, portrayed by Barton Yarborough, a longtime radio actor. After Yarborough's death in 1951 (and therefore Romero's, who died of a heart attack on the December 27, 1951 episode "The Big Sorrow"), Friday was partnered with Sergeant Ed Jacobs (December 27, 1951 – April 10, 1952, subsequently transferred to the police academy as an instructor), played by Barney Phillips; Officer Bill Lockwood (Ben Romero's nephew, April 17, 1952 – May 8, 1952), played by Martin Milner (with Ken Peters taking the role for the June 12, 1952 episode "The Big Donation"); and finally Frank Smith (introduced in "The Big Safe", May 1, 1952), played originally by Herb Ellis (1952), then Ben Alexander (1952–1959). Alexander would reprise the role of Smith for the initial television version and the 1954 film, making him Friday's longest-serving partner in all the franchise's media. When Dragnet hit its stride, it was one of radio's top-rated shows. Webb insisted on realism. The dialogue was clipped, understated, and sparse, influenced by the hardboiled school of crime fiction. Scripts were fast-moving but did not seem rushed. Every aspect of police work was chronicled, step by step: from patrols and paperwork, to crime scene investigation, lab work, and questioning witnesses or suspects. The detectives’ personal lives rarely took center stage. (Friday was a bachelor who lived with his mother; Romero, a Mexican-American from Texas, was an ever-fretful husband and father.) "Underplaying is still acting", Webb told Time. "We try to make it as real as a guy pouring a cup of coffee." Los Angeles police chiefs Clemence B. Horrall, William A. Worton, and (later) William H. Parker were credited as consultants, and many police officers were fans. Most later episodes were entitled "The Big _", where the key word denoted a person or object in the plot. In numerous episodes, this would be the principal